The Story of Gliding Describes the Pioneer Efforts of the Past and the Great Flights to Achieve the Present Records
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UOJ4P3 Gliding today is a high-technology sport. Without an engine gliders have flown 1,000 miles in a day and averaged speeds of 100 m.p.h. - more than is possible in many light aeroplanes. The modern sailplane is made of glass and carbon fibre, has a wing of up to 22 metres span, and is finished to almost perfect smoothness. But it was not always like this. The pioneers flew with the classic materials of bamboo and cotton sheeting, and their followers used spruce and plywood, or metal, in the search for ever better performance. In the early days, gliders flew from hills, like hang gliders of today, soaring in the rising air over the ridge. Then, in the late 19205, came the first tentative experiments with clouds and the discovery of thermals. Pilots tried to fly as far as they could, landing only when it was no longer possible to stay airborne, or climbed in thunderstorms without proper instruments or oxygen. The Story of Gliding describes the pioneer efforts of the past and the great flights to achieve the present records. It explains how gliding has moved towards the highest possible performance; why hang gliding has become so popular; and shows why so many pilots find flight without power - and without noise and pollution - so attractive and challenging. In this 2nd Edition there are 123 photographs and 3 4 figures. Reviewing the ist Edition in Country Life, Philip Wills wrote: 'This book is a brilliant success. The facts, the mood, the humour and the colour are authentic and in places moving; certainly in one reader the book has produced a most pleasant nostalgia.' Jacket front: Finish of a race - Jantar i of S. Kluk, Poland, above Waikerie, Australia, 1974 (photo by Ann Welch) £,9-75 net THE STORY OF GLIDING Second Edition VXX WELCH i. U ^v J JOHN MURRAY Fifty Albemarle Street London © Ann and Lome Welch 1965 © Ann Welch 2nd Edition 1980 Published by John Murray (Publishers) Ltd 50 Albemarle Street, London wlx 4BD All rights reserved Unauthorised duplication contravenes applicable laws British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Welch, Ann The story of gliding-2nd ed. 1. Gliding and soaring-History I. Title 797.5'5' 0904 GV764 ISBN 0 7195-3659-6 Printed and bound in Great Britain at The Camelot Press Ltd, Southampton CONTENTS Introduction xvii Part I To FLY LIKE THE BIRDS 1 Myths or Madness 3 2 The Lonely Men 10 3 Lilienthal and Pilcher 20 4 The Brothers Wright 33 5 Back to the Birds 41 Part II EARLY DAYS 6 Return to the Wasserkuppe 51 7 Itford 1922 60 8 Wind on the Hill 65 9 Explore the Sky 72 10 First Thermal 80 11 The Golden Age 90 12 End of an Era 100 Part III BRITISH BEGINNINGS 13 The Thirties 111 14 Downwind from Dunstable 116 15 Clubs, Comps, and Camps 129 16 Aerotows and Easterlies 137 17 The Sky is Free 147 Part IV UP TO Now 18 Championships in Wood 161 19 The Need for Speed 170 20 Championships with Glass 182 21 The Big Waves 194 22 A Thousand Kilometres 205 23 A Thousand Miles 215 24 Add a Little Engine 224 25 Evolution or Revolution 231 vii C O X T E X T S Appendix 1 Major World Records 251 Appendix 2 World Championships Results 253 Appendix 3 Glider Data Table (metric) 256 Index 257 vin ILLUSTRATIONS PL A TES facing page 1 a Replica of Cayley's 1852 glider 16 b/c Replica of Cayley's man-carrying glider of 1853 16 2 a The magnificent gannet 17 b Percy Pilcher's Hawk 17 c The general-purpose gull 17 3 The FSV-X of 1912 32 4 The Vampyr 33 5 a F. P. Raynham flies at Itford 48 b E. C. Gordon England flying the glider he designed himself 48 c Peyret's tandem monoplane 48 6 a G. W. Cain's flying bicycle at Itford 49 b Anthony Fokker's biplane 49 7 a Itford, 1922: Herne in the de Havilland 64 b Barbot in the Dewoitine 64 8 a Kronfeld's record-breaking Wien of 1929 65 b l.-r.: Max Kegel, Wolf Hirth, Ferdinand Schultz, Fritz Stamer, Robert Kronfeld and Edgar Dittmar 65 9 a Klemperer's Black Devil of 1922 80 b The Peyean Boot of 1924 80 c The Kassel 80 d Wolf Hirth's Minimoa of 1936 80 e Kronfeld's Austria of 1931 80 f The Rhonadler 80 10 a The Professor of Alexander Lippisch 81 ix ILLUSTRATIONS b The highly developed wing of the Gannet 81 c The gull-winged Minimoa of Wolf Hirth 81 11 a Eric Collins 96 b Heini Dittmar, Ludwig Hoffman, Otto Brautigam and Wolfgang Spate 96 c Robert Kronfeld in the Wien 96 d Philip Wills in Hjordis 96 e Geoffrey Stephenson 96 f Kit Nicholson 96 12 a Philip Wills in Hjordis 97 b The author learning on a Dagling 97 13 a The Dagling Primary 114 b Retrieve of a Falcon III 114 c King Kite after launch on the Wasserkuppe 114 14 a Hanna Reitsch on the Wasserkuppe in 1937 115 b The British team haul Hjordis 115 c Bill Murray and John Fox 115 15 a Falke waiting to take off 130 b Launch point, 1937 130 c The British team, 1937 130 16 a The Reiher 131 b The Atalante 131 c Philip Will's Minimoa 131 d Kit Nicholson's Rhonsperber 131 17 a The Slingsby Petrel 146 b The classic Weihe of Hans Jacobs 146 18 a Aerotowing 147 b Bocian 2-seater 147 19 a The Gull IV 152 b IVlanhandling the Polish IS-1 Sep 152 c Geoffrey and Beryl Stephenson 152 ILLUSTRATIONS 20 a Swiss Moswey in the Alps following 152 b Slingsby Eagle 21 a One of the first hundred Olympias following 152 b A thermal over Polish fields 22 a Equipment carried by Nick Goodhart 153 b End of a contest flight in France, 1956 153 23 a Lome Welch 164 b The Breguet 901 164 c Skylark 3 164 d Paul MacCready 164 24 a Early morning, Leszno, Poland, 1958 165 b Vladimir Chuvikov 165 25 a The Dutch Standard Class Sagitta 172 b The Breguet 904 2-seater 172 26 a Chris and Philip Wills following 172 b Polishing the Czech Blanik 27 a Gerard Pierre, France following 172 b Dick Georgeson, New Zealand c Billy Nillson, Sweden d Adam Witek, Poland 28 a The metal Jugoslav Meteor 173 b The 64-ft-span HKS-1 173 c The Czech VSM-40 Demant 173 29 a The AV-36, designed by Charles Fauvel 180 b The Polish Standard Class Foka 180 30 a Steve Dupont photographing the task board ILLUSTRATIONS 32 a Standard Cirrus 75 181 b The 64-ft-span Kestrel 19 181 c Helmut Reichmann, West Germany 181 d Ingo Renner 181 e Sighting frames and radar 181 f George Lee 181 33 a Lenticular clouds over St Auban 212 b New Zealand, waiting to take off 212 34 Dick Georgeson flying his Skylark 3 following 212 35 a Bill Ivans following 212 b Paul Bikle 36 Dick Georgeson soaring his Eagle 213 37 a Paul Bikle 218 b Ernst Haase 218 c Klaus Holighaus 218 38 The flat plain of S.W. Texas 219 39 a The Sisu 222 b Karl Striedeck 222 c Wally Scott 222 d Malcolm Jinks 222 e Hans Werner-Grosse 222 40 a The BJ-4 of South Africa 223 b Sigma 223 c Any wing must be clean 223 41 a Wolf Hirth's Hi-20 motor glider 230 b The ASK-14 of Schleicher 230 c Gerd Stolle, Hans Zacher and Seff Kunz 230 d The Finnish Pik-20E 230 42 a First competitions were for spot landings 231 b Gannet landing area 231 43 a Deep billow hang-glider 244 b Bob Wills 244 xii ILLUSTRATIONS c Manta Fledge 2 244 d Dave Cronk and Roy Haggard 244 44 a Vulturelite Emu 245 b Bennett Phoenix 8 245 c Strong wind flying at Perranporth, Cornwall 245 LINE DRAWINGS (by the author) 1 Cayley's 1809 model glider 8 2 Sketch-plan of Le Bris' albatross 11 3 Montgomery's Santa Clara 18 4 Lilienthal's gliders were constructed like a bird 23 5 Lilienthal's biplane glider 25 6 The Wright 32-ft-span biplane glider 39 7 The 1909 glider of Jose Weiss 42 8 Willi Pelzner's hang-glider of 1921 52 9 The Black Devil, Wasserkuppe, 1920 53 10 A hang-glider at the Combegrasse meeting, 1922 58 11 The glider in which Schultz flew for 8 hours 70 12 The first glider to soar more than 60 miles, the Wien 76 13 The white birds on blue ground of the 'B' and Silver 4C' 79 14 The world's first really beautiful glider, the Fafnir 85 15 Gliding map of Europe 93 16 Hirth's Minimoa, built for circling in thermals 94 17 The Monument on the Wasserkuppe 103 18 The record-breaking Stakhanovetz of 1939 106 xiii ILLUSTRATIONS 19 Gliding map of Britain 118 20 The German Professor 121 21 The R.F.D. Dagling, produced by Slingsby 132 22 Slingsby Gull I 143 23 Diagram of flow through a standing wave 145 24 The Meise, from which the Olympia was developed 148 25 The French Breguet 901 165 26 The Zefir, Poland. Winner of the World Champion ships, 1963 174 27 The sleek and hungry-looking Polish Foka 175 28 The Standard Class Pik-20 from Finland 189 29 New Zealand: the country of the big waves 198 30 Paul Bikle's unofficial World Distance Record flight 211 31 The weather in which Philip Wills broke the British Distance Record in 1938 217 32 The Alexander Schleicher/Waibel-17 221 33 The Scheibe SF-27M with 26 h.p.